id: 154279 accession number: 1988.88 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.88 updated: 2024-08-15 11:04:36.017000 Lehigh Valley Railroad: Bear Lake, LVRR, c. 1898–99. William H. Rau (American, 1855–1920). Albumen print from gelatin dry plate negative; image: 43.5 x 51.9 cm (17 1/8 x 20 7/16 in.); paper: 45.3 x 53.7 cm (17 13/16 x 21 1/8 in.); matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1988.88 title: Bear Lake, LVRR title in original language: series: Lehigh Valley Railroad series in original language: creation date: c. 1898–99 creation date earliest: 1893 creation date latest: 1904 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 19th century technique: albumen print from gelatin dry plate negative department: Photography collection: Photography type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * William H. Rau (American, 1855–1920) - artist William H. Rau American, 1855-1920 William Herman Rau was a Philadelphian with close ties to that city's photographic activities. The son of photographer George Rau, William married Louise Bell, daughter of photographer William Bell. He had worked for Bell until purchasing his father-in-law's company in 1878. Louise Bell Rau later exhibited her own work in pictorialist circles. Among Rau's other associates were his brother George, with whom he opened a photographic studio in 1885, the well-known photographic publisher Edward L. Wilson, and John Moran, brother of landscape artist Thomas Moran. In 1874 Rau had joined an international expedition to the South Seas to photograph the transit of Venus, working with John Moran on the project. He then worked intermittently in the southwest United States, including a period with William Henry Jackson. In 1881 he accompanied Edward Wilson to Egypt, where he made an extensive set of stereoviews and possibly some larger prints, although these have never been identified. He worked in Philadelphia during the Centennial Exposition of 1876 and was later the official photographer for the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland. Best known for his railroad and landscape images, Rau was hired in 1890 by the Pennsylvania Railroad and in 1899 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, for which he produced a series of views from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. He also recorded the Johnstown flood and the 1904 Baltimore fire. Today, Rau is important for his position linking, through subject and style, key aspects of photography in the 19th and 20th centuries. T.W.F. --- measurements: Image: 43.5 x 51.9 cm (17 1/8 x 20 7/16 in.); Paper: 45.3 x 53.7 cm (17 13/16 x 21 1/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in negative: "570 BEAR LAKE. L.V.R.R. / WILLIAM H. RAU, PHILA."; in pencil on verso: "LVF 78.1158" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00 Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). title: Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2007-06-24T00:00:00 Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'CMA, March 17 - May 14: "Photographs: Recent Acquisitions," Gallery D.', 'opening_date': '2017-03-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."', 'opening_date': '1997-02-02T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07); "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art", no exhibition catalogue.', 'opening_date': '2007-06-24T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Lehigh University Art Gallery, Lehigh, PA date: footnotes: citations: (Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc.), New York, NY date: footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: September 22, 1988 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 271 url: Green, Tyler. Emerson's Nature and the Artists: Idea As Landscape, Landscape As Idea. Munich: Prestel, 2021. page number: Reproduced: P. 128, fig. 61 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.88/1988.88_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.88/1988.88_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.88/1988.88_full.tif